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Gary Neville accused Ibrahima Konate of “annoying” Arne Slot during Liverpool’s defeat against Chelsea.
The Reds fell to a third consecutive defeat in seven days as Estevao’s stoppage-time winner secured a 2-1 win for Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. Cody Gakpo had earlier equalized after Moises Caicedo’s first-half opener, but for the second week running, Liverpool left London empty-handed.
The defeat means Slot’s side head into the October international break now trailing Arsenal by a point at the top of the Premier League table, with the Gunners having taken the lead in the title race after their win over West Ham.
Once again, Liverpool’s players left a lot to be desired with their performances, and Neville wasn’t impressed with what he saw from Konate in particular.
The defender was brought off early on in the second half, with Slot revealing afterwards that the decision was made due to an injury scare, although Neville didn’t hold back in his assessment while commentating for Sky Sports.
“If you watch Konate on the ball at the start of the second half, he was just walking with it,” the former Manchester United captain said.
“It was frustrating and annoying me, to be honest. I think he was annoying Arne Slot as well because he’s decided to get someone on is better on the ball at the back but can’t defend as well. He’s going all in.”
Despite Neville’s verdict, Slot insisted afterwards that he decided to take Konate off after seeing him struggle with a potential injury.
"What I do know is that he limped," Slot said. "He felt his quad a little bit. For me, alarm bells go off because in another sprint, you never know. It was already a sub I had in mind for a little later.
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"It might be OK that he went off early enough, but it was clear I had to take him out because he was limping."
Liverpool.com says: Konate's performances have not been good this season. He's not alone in that, but injured or not, an early substitution has felt like it's been overdue for him.
If he is struggling with an injury, then hopefully he might get rested during the international break. In any case, Liverpool needs to seriously be thinking about bringing another defender in during the January window. One injury scare is enough now that Giovanni Leoni is likely out for the rest of the season.
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